Exploring Netflix can be fun, but eventually, you might realize that you don’t subscribe to the app because you love to scroll through it. If you’re looking for a show that you can sit down and enjoy, we’ve made sure that the algorithm doesn’t steer you the wrong way.
Each of these shows is relatively compact, and they all speak to different tastes. If you’re looking for an intriguing murder story, we’ve got that. This list also has a taste of sci-fi and horror, so whatever you might be looking for, this list will hopefully keep you covered.
We also have guides to the best new shows to stream, the best shows on Netflix, the best shows on Hulu, the best shows on Amazon Prime Video, the best shows on Max, and the best shows on Disney+.
The Midnight Club (2022)
Mike Flanagan has made a number of hugely successful horror series for Netflix, but The Midnight Club is probably the most underseen and underrated. The series focuses on eight terminally ill teenagers who are living in a home together and gather each night at midnight to tell scary stories and search for signs from the beyond.
A thoughtful meditation on the nature of death (like much of Flanagan’s work), The Midnight Club has plenty of scares, but its structure gives it the opportunity to tell a wide variety of different kinds of scary stories without abandoning its central characters for too long. It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s well worth watching.
You can watch The Midnight Club on Netflix.
Terminator Zero (2024)
An anime series adapted from the world of Terminator, Terminator Zero is set in an entirely different part of this universe and is all the better for it. The show follows a computer programmer living in 1997 who has been developing a program that is designed to compete with Skynet.
The day before Judgment Day, the programmer discovers he and his family are being chased by a robot assassin. Plus, a man from 2022 has traveled back in time to save them. That classic Terminator formula is helped tremendously by the vivid animation and by the fact that this series is set in Japan. It’s a brilliant zag for a franchise that, at least theatrically, seems to have stalled out.
You can watch Terminator Zero on Netflix.
Ripley (2024)
Although it came out just last year, it already feels like Ripley didn’t get as much love as it deserved. The series, which stars Andrew Scott as the titular character, is an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley that manages to sit nicely alongside the theatrical one we already have.
If you aren’t aware, the story follows Ripley as he’s recruited to track down the scion of a wealthy man living dangerously in Europe. As he becomes more ensconced in the life of this wealthy heir, things get messy and eventually violent. Scott is brilliant in the central role, and the series features some of the best black-and-white cinematography of the past decade.
You can watch Ripley on Netflix.